About the Collaborative
Three Counties, One Mission: Leave No Trace
Time on the coast is good for us — for our mental and physical health, and for our sense of connection to place.
It's no surprise that over 10 million people visit the California coastline and communities across Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino counties each year.
But that visitation has a cost: from 2021 to 2026, tens of thousands of pounds of trash were collected from these coastal environments.
10 Million
Annual Visitors
55,000
Lbs Trash Removed
Leave No Trace (LNT) has partnered with local, state, and federal agencies, federally recognized tribes and non-federally recognized tribes, local jurisdictions and land managers, and other community-based groups across all three counties.
Leave No Trace, partners, and a dedicated Working Group continue to increase collaboration across the three counties and support bilingual access to information and resources to reduce human impacts in the coastal zone by sharing consistent messaging aligned with the four Cleaner California Coast-Leave No Trace practices.
The Cleaner California Coast team recognizes the importance of Leave No Trace principles and sees the Initiative as a central hub for residents and visitors to practice county-specific activities to safeguard coastal environments and communities.
Background
July 2026
Leave No Trace provides fiscal sponsorship and initiative oversight; CCC staff handle program delivery, and field implementation, coordinate with county, state, and federal partners, run communications and partner engagement, and lead evaluation, data collection, and stewardship
July 2024–June 2026
Leave No Trace took over as program manager,
bringing national-level expertise and resources to deepen partner
engagement and expand CCC's tools and reach.
July 2023–June 2024
The Environmental Action Committee of West Marin (EAC) served as the initiative's place-based manager: coordinating partners across the three counties, managing contracts, carrying out CCC's Scope of Work, and securing funding while hiring county liaisons and communications contractors.
June 2022
Marin, Sonoma, and Mendocino Counties launched the Cleaner California Coast–Leave No Trace Initiative, formalized through a three-county MOU with the national nonprofit Leave No Trace, to reduce litter and waste in coastal communities, public spaces, and watersheds.
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